Arlington
National Cemetery is featured in a National Geographic Special to air Wednesday.by
Dennis RyanPentagram
staff writer

National
Geographic Special's are justly famed for their documentaries of far away
exotic locales, people and fauna. Wednesday night, the society unveils
a subject quite close to home, "Arlington: Field of Honor" at 8 p.m. on
PBS.

The
National Geographic cameras explored the 600 acres of well maintained grounds
last summer and spoke with the people behind the scenes who make sure the
more than 5,400 burials a year are performed with grace and dignity.

More
than 4 million people visit Arlington each year to pay their respects to
the more than 270,000 buried there. The special shows Old Guard Soldiers,
including a firing party and the caisson platoon preparing for their missions
among other jobs.

The
Arlington Ladies represented by Paula McKinley and cemetery representative
Joe Mercer and others are followed on a typical day. The Arlington Ladies,
formed in the 1960's, are officer wives who convey the condolences of the
senior officers to each family of the deceased.

Mercer
is one of five representatives who help arrange up to 25 funerals every
weekday.

"There
are just hours and hours of preparation put into a service that lasts 20
minutes," Mercer explains in the special.

"You
can never stop and say, 'whoa, let's back up and do that again.' You have
one chance to do it right and that's it."

Darryl
Stafford has one of the most important jobs in the cemetery, yet he is
usually not seen by mourners, only their work. The 22-year employee and
his crew discreetly dig as many as 10 new graves a day.

The
documentary examines the difficult training to become a Tomb Guard, as
Staff Sgt. Al Lanier, instructs four young Soldiers. Lanier strictly examines
their uniforms, actions in the guard-change ceremony and manual of arms
in an attempt to instill a steel resolve.

"If
you take for granted the things we're telling you, we'll make you pay for
it later, and that's just going to be more sweat for you," Lanier is heard
saying to the aspiring Tomb Guards. The Tomb Guard badge is the second
rarest badge in the Army after the Army Astronaut badge.

Arlington
Cemetery has a history dating to the Civil War and official historian Tom
Sherlock relates his view of the burial ground.

"Each
and every one of these stones represents a story--someone has had an impact
on our American history," Sherlock relates. "It's that cumulative weaving
of the fabric that makes Arlington so special. The hallowing factor is
each and every person's grave here. Every day, history is added to this
cemetery."

The
society is joining forces with the Library of Congress's Veteran's History
Project this month, in honor of Veterans Day, to tell the story of veterans
in the new book, "Voices of War," to be released Thursday.